I guess Grand Rapids is serious about keeping its AHL regular-season championship, despite potentially losing 10 of last season's 11 top scorers.

The signings of point machines Jeff Hamilton and Kip Miller were solid body blows to the rest of the North Division. Hamilton is as good a finisher as you'll find in the AHL; Miller is a veteran of 449 NHL games and one of the Griffins' all-time great players.

If you're the Crunch, you have to hope that, at 37, Miller doesn't have much left and that Hamilton makes the Blackhawks (he's currently in Chicago's camp). Even if those things happen, the Griffins will still rely on a big, crushing defense.

It's just more proof that there are generally two types of teams in the AHL. There are those whose parent clubs make sound moves but that still have to have everything go right to win. As in, if Ty Conklin, Ole-Kristian Tollefsen, Mark Hartigan, Eric Boguniecki, Filip Novak, Alexandre Picard and Geoff Platt all play large parts of this season for Syracuse, the team could be very good.

There is nothing wrong with this strategy; the Blue Jackets have again been helpful to the Crunch's cause this off-season. And Columbus has been known to take a chance and get greater dividends from a player than could realistically be expected (see: Andy Delmore). It's just that right now, there's a whole lot of variables entering into Syracuse's 2006-07 season.

Then there are the AHL teams that simply lock and load, like Chicago, Milwaukee, Manitoba, Houston, Grand Rapids and, lately, Hershey. They get the Darren Haydars, Wade Flahertys, Mike Keanes, Frederic Cassivis, Donald MacLeans and Kirby Laws slapped into their lineups the entire season and roll from there. They have a much larger margin for error if someone gets hurt or recalled, because of their high-priced bedrocks who aren't going anywhere.

Rochester, too, used to be like this, until Buffalo invited Florida aboard and decided that productive veterans like Chris Taylor weren't worth having around anymore solely to help the Amerks win.